Ideal for both still frames and animations, it has all the specific niceties that working at a pixel level requires.Pixen is an innovative graphics editor for the Mac. This is a great application for pixel artists. This seems to happen a lot when using the undo and redo functions and the refreshing of the many various additional displays. The program can become a bit sluggish and unresponsive at times. Great for working at the pixel level with many tools and features geared specifically to ease your workflow. Most importantly, throughout the entire time, at the left side of the strop there is a preview window that will constantly cycle through all the existing frames, so you can see what the actual animation looks like. Also, a little close button appears over the frames if you hover the mouse, allowing you to delete unwanted frames. Clicking on the end of the strip allows you to add new frames, and the existing ones can be dragged if you need to reorder them. Working at the frame level is quite easy. Selecting any frame will focus on it, allowing you to edit it as if it were an individual document, and each can have its own separate layers.
From here, you can see all your existing frames set out chronologically like in a filmstrip, and add new ones. When you create a new animation it will place the animation interface at the top of the window. Pixen has great support for creating animated sprites. When it comes to the fine print, Pixen is also ready to help by letting you show a customizable grid that clearly highlights where one pixel ends and one begins. Not only can you see the entire image you are working on, but you can also change the background in this preview window at will. The toolbar has two sections called "Left Tool" and "Right Tool" and - at any time - you can select a new tool for your second mouse button from it.īecause working at the pixel level requires the sacrifice of loosing sight of the big picture, Pixen offers a great preview window. Not only can the tools be selected fast via keyboard shortcuts, like in Photoshop, but you can also assign any tool to both your primary and secondary mouse button. While Pixen may not have many tools, it nevertheless lets you work with them in whichever way you like. This program makes it easy to hot-swap backgrounds as well as create custom 'transparency' backgrounds that are less stressful for the eye. All the layers are transparent, and if you are using a graphics tablet for drawing, the pressure regulates the opacity of the color you are laying down, making it perfect for adding highlights or undertones.īecause most of what you make in Pixen has a transparent background, it is sometimes important to be able to see what your work will look like on a different background. Using layers it is very easy to have your concept sketch on the bottom, with the outline above on one single layer, while the shading and highlights are both done on separate layers. These are quite different from the layers in Photoshop but in terms of how they allow you to break up your work into smaller pieces they are the same. The first and front most of these are the layers. However, where this program really shines is in all the different options it gives you at the workflow level. Because of the way it works at the pixel level, most of the drawing that takes place is done with the simple pencil tool. Pixen may not look like much in terms of the tools it offers.
Whether you are working on backgrounds or animated sprites, this program has both the right tools and the right approach to make your work easier. The need for small graphics has not disappeared with the existence of next generation consoles, because there are still devices that have limited abilities, like the iPod. Pixen is a graphics editor that is especially designed for use with small sized graphics such as sprites for games. Photoshop is great for working on huge billboard sized images however, it is not exactly ideal when your canvas is a 64 pixel square.įor any kind of pixel work, it is good to have a tool that was designed to work at the pixel level, such as Pixen. In these times it is often easy to forget that there is still a need for tools that can work efficiently with things on a much smaller scale. The files we work with are many times bigger than the entire hard drive of an old computer and the work that is done with them is on a much bigger scale. Not surprisingly, everything else has grown along with the technology. We've gone from large bulky computers that were state of the art in their time to sleek, compact machines that are a thousand times more powerful than their ancestors. Technological progress over the past few years has been quite astonishing, if only because it seemed to happen right on our doorstep.
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